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Comment by logicalmind | Hacker News Reader

But if the simulated worlds are deterministic as implied then you could run the simulation forward into the future if your reality also followed the same determinism. Doing this would cause an interesting paradox where knowledge of the simulated future could change what you do in the real world. For example, simulate forward to the next lottery drawing to discover the numbers. Then play those numbers in the real world and win the lottery.

This all depends on the fact that the simulation and the real world are deterministic which, it would seem, is highly improbable.

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In the context of this story, the simulation below you would also be looking into the future, and the simulation above would be looking at your future. Whatever "future" is seen has to be reflected in every simulation.

This doesn't change much, the problem irons its self out. I see no paradox. And I don't know what you see that makes determinism "seem improbable."

For the sake of argument, let's say that world zero (W0 for short) is at some arbitrary level. Worlds being simulated below that level would be -W1, -W2, etc. Worlds above would be W1, W2, etc. If everything is deterministic then worlds at all levels take the same path and arrive at the same outcome. But if W0 has control over the -W1 timeline, then W0 can view it's own future by moving the -W1 timeline forward. W0 now knows it's own future (lottery numbers for arguments sake). W0 can now use that knowledge to change it's future. The W0 future is now different from the W1 future which contradicts the ability for all worlds to be deterministic.

As I said, every simulation within the context of this story would be looking into the future via the lower simulation.

In this argument, every simulation would look into the future to see the lottery numbers, and would act out on this knowledge. There would be no "changing the future." Every simulation would see the lottery numbers, then see themselves go to the store and get a ticket with the numbers, and every simulation will win with those numbers. There was no other future. The future you see in the simulation is the future that will occur in your own simulation.

Calling this a paradox is like calling recursive mirrors a paradox.

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